US Middle East envoy Dennis Ross began talks on the Israeli-Palestinian peace process with Egyptian Foreign Minister Amr Moussa in the Mediterranean city of Alexandria Saturday, the foreign ministry said.

The two men discussed "the latest developments in the peace process in light of efforts made by Egypt, in coordination with the United States, to come up with ideas to bring the Israeli and Palestinian points of view closer together," a ministry official said.

Ross is expected to return to Israel at around 6 p.m. (1500 GMT), a US embassy spokesman told AFP.

He is not scheduled to meet Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, who is at his residence near Alexandria, the spokesman said.

Ross arrived in the region Thursday in a bid to sound out possibilities for holding a new Israeli-Palestinian summit similar to the one in Camp David which ended without result on July 25 - CAIRO(AFP)